Candidates R11: Vishy Anand, the comeback man!

The 2016 FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament is a 14-round event, which determines the next Challenger to Magnus Carlsen's title, is taking place in Moscow from March 10–30. Eight players, including six of the World's top-ten rated grandmasters. The time control is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move one. The guaranteed prize fund is US $420,000.

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Candidates round eleven – Vishy Anand, the comeback man!

Report from Moscow by IM Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal

Vishy Anand’s win against Sergey Karjakin was not only the game of the day but also the competitively most important result of the eleventh round. Prior to the round, Sergey Karjakin was leading the event, together with Fabiano Caruana, both at 6.0/11. With Vishy’s victory the five-time World Champion has now joined Caruana at the top, with 6.5/11. What makes this tournament extremely interesting is the fact that six players have a theoretical chance of winning. This is what the standings after the eleventh round look like:

Currently Fabiano Caruana has the best chances of winning this tournament. This for two reasons: he has two whites in the remaining three games, and thanks to his age he should be in a better physical state than Vishy Anand in this long and tiring event. The good news for Anand fans is that even though he has two blacks left now, and his performance from the black side in this tournament has been nothing short of dismal, he has already played against the leaders Caruana and Karjakin. Fabiano and Sergey are yet to play each other and will meet in the final round, which might well decide the outcome of this event.

Vishy Anand – Sergey Karjakin 1-0

Fabiano Caruana is definitely interested in who will be his biggest rival to the finish line

“Vishy Anand simply outclassed Sergey Karjakin! Karjakin is not in the same league as Anand.” These are the words of Garry Kasparov who describes Anand's win for Today in Chess with the words, "Hats off!" and recognizing that he "beat a very strong player 20 years ago!" Anand really did play one of the most profound endgames ever. Sergey Karjakin is known to be a tenacious defender. However, he completely underestimated Vishy’s endgame play and was handed his first defeat of the tournament.

10.Nxe5 was the first new move of the game. In the post-game interview Anand credited his second Grzegorz Gajewski with finding that this line was not as equal as it looked and that the endgame could get quite unpleasant.

Many people thought that 19.Qg5 was synonymous to a draw offer by Anand. But little would they have thought that the game would go on for another 50 moves! The opposite coloured bishop endgame was definitely drawish, but the crucial period of the game came around move 35 when Sergey was already under some time pressure and needed to find the accurate moves to hold the balance.

36…Rc8 was played by Karjakin, and it turned out to be a mistake. Instead he should have broken back with 36…f5!, when the game would have ended in a draw. After 36…Rc8 Anand made two extremely accurate moves 37.f5! Bd7 and now 38.h4! And with these two pawn moves he had already secured a near to decisive advantage.

We are seeing a completely new Anand at this event. One who is ready to grind slightly better positions for hours on end. Garry Kasparov once said that his matches with Karpov made him what he is today. Maybe the World Championship matches with Magnus Carlsen have inspired Anand to take up the slow and incremental approach towards chess!

A great gesture by Karjakin: he maintained a smiling and friendly atmosphere in the press conference.
This game was extremely crucial for his chances to qualify, but in spite of his defeat he showed wonderful sportsman spirit.

Anand and Karjakin make their way out from the playing hall, with fans and reporters following them

Veselin Topalov - Fabiano Caruana 0.5-0.5

The game was a complete roller coaster ride. The opening was one of the most exciting positions that we got in the entire tournament. Just take a look:

10…Ra7!!? What in the world is going on!
The game analysis given below will come to your rescue.

Topalov knows that this is going to be a tense game!

The opening went like a dream for Topalov, who got an excellent position. Usually such advantages are enough for Veselin to convert them into a full point, but in Moscow, he has been completely off colour. He immediately went wrong and handed the advantage to Caruana. Fabiano played the middlegame very well and was completely winning when his nerves began to show. He was low on time and made a few elementary mistakes. As soon as the time control was reached, the position was no longer so clear. He took the pragmatic decision to making a draw before things went completely out of control.

Fabiano’s expression says it all

Levon Aronian – Peter Svidler 0-1

We haven’t seen many black wins in this event – there has been only one prior to Svidler’s win against Aronian today. Going into the middlegame it definitely did not look as if Svidler would win this one. However, Aronian tried to play it a little bit too safe. Instead of going for the most decisive continuation with 24.Nh6+! he settled for the practical 24.Bxe7 followed by Ne5. As Aronian said after the game, “This practical approach was not at all practical! I should have attacked.” We could say that Svidler was lucky today, but in the event he has been one of the unluckiest players. He has drawn or lost so many better or winning positions. Finally, he was rewarded for his persistence.

Can you spot something terribly wrong in this picture?

The usually jovial Levon Aronian was heartbroken in the press conference. This loss had effectively ended his chances of being the World Championship Challenger for 2016. It was obvious that as the wildcard entry he had a lot of pressure on his shoulders. He started off well, but with this loss to Peter Svidler he has put himself in a precarious situation. He might need +2 or even +3 from the last three rounds for any chances of qualification. It must be mentioned that Peter Svidler was very sensitive to his opponent’s loss and did not for once smile or show his happiness in the press conference. This is what true sportsmen are made up of. They know how to control their emotions.

In the picture of Aronian smiling at the start of the game, did you notice that the rook on h1 is missing? It fell off the board, to the amusement of the players (a rook odds game at the Candidates? No way!)

Anish Giri – Hikaru Nakamura 0.5-0.5

Eleven draws in eleven rounds – is that a new record for the Candidates?

There is a cruel mime being spread on Twitter: "Anish Giri was in deep trouble and in danger of winning. But he has managed to fight back and save the draw." If Anish had taken all the chances that he has got until now, he would have been the leader of the event. Unfortunately he is simply unable to win his games. Today he had a very pleasant position against Hikaru right until the very end of the game. Then he made a tactical oversight and was lucky that he still had a possibility to make a draw. But in any case Anish will be the one who would be depressed with his result as he was in driver’s seat for most of the game.

March 24 was the 70th death anniversary of the great fourth World Champion Alexander Alekhine

The best way to follow the games: plug in earphones to listen to the Russian
commentary and check the moves on the large screen and analyze with your mom!

The only thing you can do when your idol is battling it out inside is to wait patiently

All photos by Amruta Mokal of ChessBase India

Standings after eleven rounds

Pairings and results

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